As the Kudzu Thickens
As 2007 draws to a close I'd like to take a few column inches to reflect on a some of the past year's events, challenges, high and low lights. Looking back at the year is a tradition for me. Maybe it's my inner poet who likes to reflect on the past. Maybe it's an easy way to get a last KT out of the dying ends of the year before my early morning deadline crashes against my eggnog-addled brain.
First of all, let's talk about the weather. I'm sure everybody's noticed it's been hot most of 2007. Last week-deep into December-I wore shorts and a tee shirt all day. I like shorts and tees, but come December I want to break out all my expensive deep cold Mountain Hardwear and Patagonia winter fleeces. I want to walk the dog swaddled to the hilt in winter gear and reflect on a chilled Piedmont wonderland and dream of old-time blizzards. If I wanted to live in Southern California, I'd move there. I don't know about you, but my climate's changed drastically this year. A few more years of this and even all you Al Gore haters out there who write me every time I mention his name will come around to global warming.
If the heat isn't enough, 2007 has been one of the driest years on record in the Upcountry. We're almost 20 inches down on our rainfall totals as the year ends. The creeks and rivers are so low they look like gulches out west. Some of the stream flows are a quarter of what they would normally be. The ground water has diminished and has not recharged after the great drought of 1998-2004. What to do? Maybe we should rip up all those expensive in-ground irrigation systems, recycle the PVC pipe, and replant piedmont yards as xeriscapes like Arizona. If it stays this dry it won't be long before marauding bands of thirst-crazed urban Atlantians with hijacked tank trucks will raid the watersheds of the Enoree, Tyger, and Broad Rivers for our precious reserves. When all these metro Mad Max types start stealing our water remember you heard it first in the KT.
On the upside, it's been a pretty good year for land use. The Spartanburg County Council passed a parks tax, and at year end they're seriously considering major alterations of the land ordinances allowing more mixed use. Nobody's trotted out a new Waste Management landfill deal in the past year, and there are more than a few builders who have finally looked seriously at "green building" practices here on the stodgy conservative construction margin of South Carolina. In my neighborhood alone there is an Earth Craft home under construction and a LEED certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) house ready to break ground. When we built green five years ago energy efficiency was a novelty. Now more and more local homebuilders are considering energy efficiency as an option.
Much of the major construction in downtown Spartanburg is still far behind the green times: this year saw the completion of the Chapman Cultural Center, and though they are to be commended for streetscape nods to New Urbanism, the planners seemed unconcerned with reducing the building's carbon footprint or adhering to established standards for green design. The same can be said for the new condominiums under construction downtown. With these short-sighted construction decisions in mind it's important as another years closes to acknowledge the vision and foresight of the Mary Black Foundation and QS1 for building LEED certified downtown when they weren't required to do so by codes or laws.
In the coming year will Chancellor John Stockwell and USC Upstate step forward and show downtown leadership in green design and choose LEED for their George Dean Johnson Jr. College of Business and Economics?
With that question I'll leave 2007 behind. I'll remember this as the year we first heard the coyotes behind our house and rivers ran low. There are geese flying over in the early-morning light. They're headed somewhere to feed for the day, year-round residents whose sound has become a calling card for every dawn. What will you remember about this year? What's on your year-end list?